title: Purification and characterization of a human pancreas-specific antigen.
abstract: A pancreas-specific antigen was identified by immunologic techniques and purified from saline extract of human pancreas. The purified pancreas-specific antigen was shown to be homogeneous by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under both denaturing and non-denaturing conditions. It had a molecular weight of 44000 as estimated by gel filtration or sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis, and a sedimentation coefficient of 3.4 S as analyzed by sucrose gradient centrifugation. Pancreas-specific antigen possessed an isoelectric point of 4.9 and migrated to alpha-beta region upon immunoelectrophoresis. By colorimetric assay procedures, pancreas-specific antigen exhibited no enzyme activity, such as amylase, protease, esterase, lipase, acid phosphatase, alkaline phosphatase peroxidase, deoxyribonuclease or ribonuclease. Immunoreactivity of pancreas-specific antigen was sensitive to proteolytic enzymes, perchloric acid and high temperature (70 degrees C, 10 min); but insensitive to neuraminidase or beta-glucosidase. Immunohistochemical staining revealed that pancreas-specific antigen was located in acinar cells of human pancreas. In addition, a higher concentration of pancreas-specific antigen was detected in pancreatic juice than in the saline extract of pancreas. This newly identified pancreas-specific antigen, therefore, may be a useful marker protein in physiological studies of pancreas and pancreatic secretion.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000941:Antigens / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D002769:Cholelithiasis / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D005779:Immunodiffusion; D007124:Immunoenzyme Techniques; D010179:Pancreas / Q000166:cytology / Q000276:immunology*; D010189:Pancreatic Juice / Q000276:immunology; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D011817:Rabbits / Q000276:immunology
chemical_list: D000941:Antigens